6 



number of species, nearly every bird belonging to the Miss- 

 issippi Valley section may be found within their precincts at 

 one time or other of the year. 



Before entering into a discussion of the birds of our state 

 themselves, it will yet be necessary to speak of some points of 

 migration, without considering the reasons which originally 

 inompted birds to change their home locations, and return to 

 them with such exactness and regularity. These reasons, I 

 believe, are already well known, but the two movements which 

 occur in the yearly cycle of migration are so characteristically 

 diti'erent from each other that they are deserving of some 

 attention. It is certainly lair to assume that the locality 

 where a bird raises its young should be regarded as its true 

 home, Avhence, however, it may be driven by external inllu- 

 euces, against which it cannot combat. That the leaving of 

 the beloved spot, Avhere its conjugal and parental pleasui-es 

 found their culmination, must be reluctant is self-evident; 

 hence the gradual and dilatory movements during tall migra- 

 tion. Inch by inch and mile by mile, as it were, the birds 

 are driven from the vicinity of their homes, until finally, 

 through the ever increasing rigor of climatic conditions and 

 the diminishing food supply, they are compelled no longer to 

 postpone the long deferred Journey to distant and more con- 

 genial lands. This, I think, is the reason that, with few 

 exceptions, migratory birds are s[)read over a larger area, and 

 remain in greater distribution for a longer period during the 

 autumn migration. It is well known to everyone who has 

 studied the habits and peculiarities of birds how quickly the 

 migrant can be told Irom the resident of the same species. 

 The resident is at home; the migrant, on the contrary, ill at 

 ease, and ever restless and silent. With the change of season, 

 the delay of tlicse more widely scattered fall migrants is no 

 longer indulged in. The love of home becomes the all-pre- 

 vailing desire, and although storms encountered on their 

 journey may drive them back again, they oidy push forward 

 with renewed vigor, and nothing short of death will deter 

 them from again reaching their nesting places. 



Along our coast-line there are various stopping places 

 where, after a long and uninterru])te(l jimrney, the tired and 

 worn birds remain for a few days to reeui)erate. They appear 

 there from a week to ten days earlier than they will be 

 noticed twenty-tive or thirty miles lurther inland.' (Irand, 

 Timbalier, Last and xVvery's Islands afford the fatigued trav- 

 elers the needed rest, and while many species and indi- 



